Wednesday, 23 March 2016

“Allowing students to use restrooms, locker rooms and showers that are reserved for students of a different sex will create potential embarrassment, shame, and psychological injury to students,” - Kansas Bills SB 513 and HB 2737

So... which of these two causes "psychological injury"?

Like bills proposed in other states, these measures attempt to define
“sex” in a narrow way — in this case, “the physical condition of being
male or female, which is determined by a person’s chromosomes, and is
identified at birth by a person’s anatomy.

Because Intersex people not only don't exist, they can't exist. The 1 in 300 men who are not 46,XY, and the 1 in 600 women who aren't 46,XX, they are causes of "shame and embarassment" because... well, just because. And that's worth Big Bucks.

The “Student Physical Privacy Act” would apply not only to public
schools, but all public universities in the state as well, guaranteeing
that anyone who saw someone transgender in the bathroom could sue their
school for $2,500 for every time that it happened.

At a minimum, plus court costs and actual damages for "psychological injury".

Friday, 11 March 2016

Too many times I've seen assertions in Op-Eds and comments that "there is no evidence for a biological origin for transsexuality". Sometimes it's "no evidence whatsover", sometimes "no convincing evidence", "no peer-reviewed evidence". The impression is given that there's only one or two papers written by pay-for-comment idealogues in vanity press publications, if anything, and probably not even that.

Objective: To review current literature that supports a biologic basis of gender identity.

Methods: A traditional literature review.Results: Evidence that there is a biologic basis for gender identity primarily involves (1)
data on gender identity in patients with disorders of sex development
(DSDs, also known as differences of sex development) along with (2) neuroanatomical differences associated with gender identity.

Conclusions:
Although the mechanisms remain to be determined, there is strong
support in the literature for a biologic basis of gender identity.

"Strong support" - like there's "Strong support" for the theory that the Earth isn't flat. It's about as close to certainty as you'll find in any scientific publication.

Thursday, 3 March 2016

The state’s Human Rights Commission wants to be clear: A new rule allowing transgender people to use restrooms that match their gender identity does not permit men to undress in women’s locker rooms.
The agency sent out a news release Friday responding to a recent incident in which a man undressed in a women’s locker room in Seattle. According to the news release, the man refused to leave, citing the state’s new rule about transgender restroom access, but he never identified himself as transgender.
State officials said the man’s behavior isn’t permitted under the recent regulation approved by the Human Rights Commission. The new rule, which took effect Dec. 26, says transgender people in Washington can’t be forced to use a restroom or locker room that is inconsistent with their gender identity.
Opponents of the rule have said the policy threatens the privacy of women and children, while providing cover for sex offenders who might want to enter locker rooms to prey on members of the opposite sex.
On Friday, the Human Rights Commission characterized the man’s actions in the Seattle locker room as an attempt “to make some kind of misguided point” about the new state rule and “to make the women and girls in the restroom upset and uncomfortable.”
“His behavior is inexcusable and reprehensible. And it is absolutely not protected under the law,” said the news release from the commission’s executive director Sharon Ortiz.
“Men cannot go into the women’s locker room, as this man claimed he had the right to do,” the news release said. “Only women – including transgender women – can go into the women’s locker room.”

A Seattle, Wash. community is in uproar after a man undressed in the
women’s locker room at a local pool, seemingly to test a new rule that
allows transgender people to use the bathroom of their gender identity,
according to King 5 News.
An unidentified man wearing board shorts walked into the women’s
bathroom of Evans Pool, in the heart of Seattle, on Monday evening.
The women inside the locker room at the time attempted to kick him out,
but the guy refused and said “the law has changed and I have the right
to be here.”

Expect to see this example used and re-used on Right Wing sites. They couldn't find any actual example of any of the horribles they claim giving Trans people equal rights would cause, so they have to manufacture them.

About Me

Actually, I am a Rocket Scientist.
Also hormonally odd (my blood has 46xy chromosomes anyway) and for most of my life, I looked male, and lived as one, trying to be the best Man a Gal could be. Anyway, in May 2005 that started changing naturally for reasons still unclear, and I'm now Zoe, not Alan : happier and more relaxed not to have to pretend any more.
UPDATE - reason now identified as the 3BHSD form of CAH.

Reviews

This blog, written by a rocket scientist, is a fascinating collection of information, both personal and scientific, regarding intersex, transsexualism and related psychosocial and psychosexual issues....It is erudite and heartfelt. Just read the posts about the passport issue. You won't know whether to laugh, weep or crawl into a ball and rock gently in a corner - an amazing person.- David---The reason I so appreciate bright, perceptive people - as opposed to ideologues whose intelligence does little to illuminate - is that they manage to both instruct and learn with a certain grace. Among such rarities in the transblogosphere is Zoe, whose direct speech and clear humanity always make her worth reading, even if one doesn’t always agree with her every conclusion.- Val---The following is a request for permission to archive your A.E.Brain blog site which we have wanted to do for several years...The Library has traditionally collected items in print, but it is also committed to preserving electronic publications of lasting cultural value....Since (1996) we have been identifying online publications and archiving those that we consider have national significance....We would like to include A.E.Brain blog site in the PANDORA Archive...-Australian National Library